Learn Italian: Il gatto selvatico è tornato nella tana.

Il gatto selvatico è tornato nella tana.

The wild cat returned to the den.

Breakdown of Il gatto selvatico è tornato nella tana.

Questions & Answers about Il gatto selvatico è tornato nella tana.

Why do we use tornare here instead of restituire for to return?

In Italian, tornare (or ritornare) means to return in the sense of physically going back to a place. If you want to say you are returning an object to a person or a store, you must use restituire or riportare. Since the cat is traveling back to a location, tornare is the correct choice.

Why is the auxiliary verb essere (è) used here instead of avere (ha)?

Tornare is an intransitive verb of motion, meaning it describes a change of location and cannot take a direct object. In compound tenses like the passato prossimo, these verbs require the auxiliary essere. Whenever you use essere, remember that the past participle must agree with the subject in gender and number, which is why we use the masculine singular tornato for il gatto.

We often say tornare a (like tornare a casa). Why does this sentence use nella instead of alla tana?

While the preposition a is used for cities and specific fixed locations like casa, scuola, or teatro, the preposition in is used when you are physically entering an enclosed, three-dimensional space. A tana (den or burrow) is an enclosed physical space the cat is going inside of, so we combine in with the definite article la to make nella.

If there were multiple wild cats, how would the spelling of selvatico change?